What’s that? You don’t remember Mrs Whatsit? Well, it was originally published in January of 2011, by Sanguine Gryphon. The rights reverted to me some time ago, but I wanted to rework the charts and re-knit it and, well, life intervened.* I ended up not doing the re-knit – my amazing test knitter did the knitting, and as always, her work** increases the quality of my patterns.

The instructions are fully written and charted out, and you can cross reference between the two. I’ve also included construction and blocking schematics.

I chose a new yarn weight for this re-release; I decided on the delicious Mondegreen by Verdant Gryphon. It’s currently on a hiatus so they can carry a couple other bases***, but I happily stocked up some time ago. You can use any worsted weight, although it really will shine (hyuck) with a blend featuring some silk.

Yes, I look smug about that terrible pun; forgive me.

Mrs Whatsit is a character in a book from my childhood. She is an angel disguised as a tramp: “It seemed small for Meg’s idea of a tramp… it was completely bundled up in clothes. Several scarves of assorted colors were tied about the head, and… A shocking pink stole was knotted about a rough overcoat, and black rubber boots covered the feet.” She transforms to show“…a pair of wings…made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry.”A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L’Engle.

I think here, you can see the idea of wings spreading. The construction is unusual – you begin at the nape and knit out, much like a neck-down shawl. When the shoulder depth is reached, the center portion is bound off, and each ‘wing’ is worked outward separately.Due to the nature of the increases & decreases, the only place markers are used in this pattern are to note the BO’s of the Center Panel.

The piece looks quite large here, but because of the lines of yarnovers, it happily wraps around your neck to act as a scarf as well as a stole.

*This also explains the pause since my last pattern publication.
**All mistakes are all mine, as always.
***Yes. I’ve been working at this for a while. Trust me, if you can find Mondegreen you will be so happy… Think it looks familiar? It’s the same yarn that I used for His Golden Lair… http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/his-golden-lair

Well, this one is all mine. Actually, all of the errata are my fault - but this one smarts because I “corrected” something in v2.8 and instead of fixing up one small error in a line, I added another error to it. Which does not actually fix anything.

So, version 2.9 is now correct to the best of my abilities. Again, I sincerely apologize if this caused any of you confusion or irritation. I certainly hope that I am humble, and it certainly seems like His Golden Lair is here to make sure I stay that way. It was ambitious to include fully written instructions in such an intricate pattern, and while I’m glad that I did*, I’m trying to figure out a better way to proofread in the future.

Are you in the Calgary area and want to add to your knitting skills? This Saturday Apr. 26 & next Saturday May 3, Alana will be teaching a class at the Loop using my Praline pattern.

You’ll need to call the Loop to register, a copy of the pattern, 180 6/0 seed beads, and 400 yards of fingering weight yarn. (And a 0.6 mm crochet hook & a 3.25 mm (US 3) 24″ circular needle). I do believe you can get most all of those things through the Loop… 403-457-3020 or theloopkensington (at) gmail.com

The class is noted as “Advanced Beginner” and you can work on basic skills plus repetitive stitch patterns, simple color changes, and simple shaping and finishing. And adding beads!

PS: I’ve taken several cracks at adding in images as Praline is one of my favorites, but the technology is set on foiling me today. Sigh. Here’s the Ravelry page, if you care to follow the link you can feast your eyes on the beauty… http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/praline-2

This wide, triangular scarf is knit from the tip up, with increases at the beginning and end of every row. Variegated yarns will be flattered, as will almost any weight and fiber content.

Be sure to swatch to ensure that you like your knitted fabric; try going up two to four needle sizes from what is suggested for your yarn. I’ve listed my gauge in stockinette & pattern to give you an idea of how much the stitch pattern will draw in.

Well, it’s the last day of the free pattern gift that I spontaneously set up… and you knitters, you have knocked my socks off. If you haven’t yet, you’ve got until midnight to pop over here –> http://www.ravelry.com/designers/kourtney-robinson and use the code ‘Free1′ for a free pattern.

I’m still reeling (in positive delight) about how many of you have downloaded a pattern! I wanted to cheer myself up, by cheering others – and holy wow. I’m still downloading the file from Ravelry so that I can make a pivot table to see how many people, how many patterns, etc. I’m probably going to make charts. Because you know, I love Excel. And pivot tables.

I don’t need Excel though, to know how much awesome there is. LOTS. Far more that I anticipated! Saturday was a ridiculously busy day – eye appointments for the kids and a pupil dilation and retina exam for me – we’re all fine, although I spent a bunch of Saturday squinting and reeling, until my pupils came back to normal. After the eye exams, we travelled to Canmore to see family and have a mini-Xmas. Luckily, my pupils had calmed down by the time I needed to help build a Lego van and bbq set… Then home, supper, bedtime…

I’d popped on to Rav and seen that my patterns were doing amazingly well*, and I saw that there were a whole pile of messages in my inbox. It was around ten pm when I updated my blog. Then it was about 11 when I started reading through my Ravelry inbox. I plan on replying to all the messages, but I’m still tad too overwhelmed (again, in a good way). In person, you could see me making goldfish faces and flapping my hands, but that doesn’t really come across all that well in text.

Anyways, a couple people let me know that it looked like they could download all my patterns, as long as they did it one at a time. A couple more people sent messages, genuinely horrified that they got more than one free. I replied to them that it was okay; no big deal. And after some thought, I altered the offer so that you need to enter a code (Free1) and it’s limited to one pattern per person.

Now, I didn’t (and don’t) want to be stingy – but I wanted you, dear knitter, to know that I set value on my patterns. I wanted to give each of you a gift of a pattern. (If you took advantage of the electronic loophole, I am not upset. I’m not mad. Enjoy the knitting. Don’t feel bad. Pay it forward somehow.)

I wanted to create a feeling of a gift. I didn’t want things to feel like the flyers that get dropped off on the steps every week – they are free, but I don’t feel like they have much intrinsic value**. Sometimes, when things are free, their value is eroded. It’s s fine line; I put a lot of effort and energy into even the simplest of my patterns. I’m glad to have thrown open the doors to the library, so to speak. It was an impulse, but a good one.

Years ago, when I was still working in an office environment at an engineering firm, I was having my annual review. My boss asked me about my five year career plan, and I goggled at him. “I don’t have a plan.” Then he goggled at me. I explained that I don’t do too much firm planning; I believe in keeping my eyes open for opportunities as they present themselves. If I’m too focused on a single goal, I may miss chances that present themselves. I try not to overthink things. That said, I think that the Universe is showing me an opportunity here – so I’ve started a group on Ravelry.

I’ve been thinking on and off for a while that it’d be nice to have one spot where people knitting the same design can discuss things, post progress shots, and we can all help each other answer questions. The group is here: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/dollybird-workshop , and I’m going to pop on over and start a couple topics.

I’m very excited because I plan on showing you all SQUEAK, who is S___’s new kitten. And utterly adorable.

Yes, I’m becoming one of those people who put pictures of cats on the internet. Don’t tell me that you’re really surprised.

No, no, I haven’t produced a remake of the wonderful 1979 James Bond movie. How could I improve upon Jaws? Moonraker is a sibling pattern to Spinnaker; both are named after sails. The Moonraker cowl pattern is available through Ravelry for $6.00USD, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/moonraker-cowl .

I used my super-spy skills to create a variant of my Spinnaker Capelet; the lace is now fully reversible and still sparkles with beads. The stockinette and reverse stockinette move along intuitively, and they fold and crease wonderfully when worn.

Two sizes offer you the option of a snug neck warmer or a longer infinity cowl, for however you like to tackle adventures.

The green version uses Wollmeise Pur in Schwefel (o schwefel, how I love thee). It used 112g of the 154g skein, and 660 beads (almost 60g). The coral version is Tosh Sock, in Grapefruit – I used .9 of a skein, or thereabouts, and about 500 beads.

The hardest thing about this design was settling on a name. Sometimes patterns are like that – they have a working title (Big Leaf, in this case), but their formal name is a struggle. I ended up using part of the Latin name for the big-leaf maple (acer macrophyllum). When winter first arrives, I crave colour and something to snuggle up in. Macro lace and super bulky yarn combine for the perfect accessory to ease into winter. Acer is available on ravelry, for $6.00USD. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/acer-shawl

As you can see, Acer is knit with a super-bulky yarn (Malabrigo Rasta, two skeins) and a very large gauge. Two stitches to the inch, to be exact! It’s a quick but athletic knit, on 12mm/US #17 needles.

Although “exact” is a tad misleading for the gauge in this project. The next commonly available smaller needle size is 10mm/US #15 and the larger needle size is 15m/US #19. Unless your gauge varies extremely, I suggest knitting with the 12mm/US #17 needles.

Really, the only thing I had a hard time with was deciding what to call it. It’s not quite a cape, it’s bigger than a cowl, no one likes the word poncho – and it doesn’t have a point, either. So I went with capelet… better than ponchette, right?

The original version is the gray and yellow; I’d almost given up on finding the right shade of yellow but then I found the perfect colour at a fabric store. The beads were no-name Czech beads, but I thought “what the heck”. It turns out that no-name Czech beads are significantly lighter in individual mass that the high quality Japanese beads. The test knit (the blue one) used Miyuki beads, which Alana the Amazing has since christened “Sumo Beads”. There were about 75g used in the yellow/gray version (2x40g vials) and almost 95g in the blue version (4x20g vials). The blue version’s beads are almost the equivalent of another ball of sock yarn…

To choose your size, measure (including your lowered arms) around the fullest point of your chest, and choose a size with a lower circumference that is 3-5” less than your measurement. The garment shown is modeled with about 3” of negative ease. The capelet is quite heavily beaded, and the negative ease is necessary to help it stay in place on your shoulders. I’ve included a schematic in the pattern, and it’s fully written as well as charted.

I’m very pleased with the heavy beading – not only does it add sparkle, the knitted fabric has a very sumptuous hand and the drape is wonderful.

I’d like to send enormous thanks to my test-knitter, Alana, and to S___ for photographing this for me. This is one of my go-to garments; sometimes I wear it over a shirt around the house, and I’ve been wearing it over light jackets in our too-brief fall. Again, it’s available online here, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/spinnaker-capelet for $6.00USD. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

I feel pretty strongly that the first version is more graceful, although I do generally try not to split instructions so that it’s *knit, something, knit*. I generally try to do *Something, knit two*. But in this case, with the multiple sizing… I dunno.

Do you have any strong emotions about this (other than confusion)? I’ll try to turn on comments so that you can let know…

I’m pleased at long last to show you all my Petal Bonnet. It’s part of Cooperative Press’s Fresh Designs:Kids; and I’m in some excellent company. The book is available for $16.95 as a pdf download from Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/fresh-designs-kids ), it will also be available in a print version later this month. It has ten very knittable patterns, for babies to kids, and there are some fun designs for boys and girls.

This design, though, is more for baby girls. Petal is a bonnet worked from the crown to the brim; and the front edge of the brim is bound off in a contrasting colour. It’s size range is XS-Preemie [S-Newborn, M-3Mos, L-6Mos, 1X-12Mos] (Shown in: Grey/Cream L-6Mos, Blue/Green XL-12Mos).

The published patterns are worked in Schoppel-Wolle’s Cashmere Queen (natural and grey); and Louet Gems Sport held double with Schulana Kid-Seta (green and blue). The original used Madelintosh’s Tosh DK (purple and orange).

For this pattern, I developed my own sizing, based on the 50th percentile values for girls from the CDC’s 2000 study. This chart is used by health care providers in the US & Canada. That said, I urge you to look at your family’s general head size, and when in doubt, knit a larger size. Babies grow!

And speaking of growing babies, I need to run to take the baby in this photo to her first day of pre-kindergarten… how time flies! I’m tempted to use one of the other patterns in the book (Funkyds Vest, I’m looking at you) to knit the girls some back-to-school gear.